Using Steamworks.NET without being a steamworks developer (Spacewar)

[Sonya]

I've been doing some testing with Steamworks.NET, using the AppID that it provides (480 - Spacewar), and everything seems to work - I can access friends list, use p2p with NAT punch-through, etc, Steam just shows me and my friend playing spacewar, when we are actually playing my basic unity project.

So one thing is not clear to me: if I decided to build a complete p2p-multiplayer game prototype using Steamworks with default game id (easy to implement, easy to test with anyone, seems convinient), would it be safe to launch and give to others, or is there a risk of getting people banned or smth?

I mean, spacewar is intended to be used to demonstrate how steamworks can be integrated, but are there any official restrictions on how far that "demonstration" can go?

I know that spacewar was (or still is) abused in piracy to let people play pirated games online, heard about it being involved in some VAC bans too.

Obviosly I would do that just for testing purposes (if I ended up actually finishing something decent, I would try to just release it on Steam anyway), but I can sort of imagine how someone could abuse this, so I'm just not sure.

*btw, I'm sorry for cloning the discussion, but I just really struggle to find any info about this and figured that I might have better luck with VAC forum.

[XBL Laberbacke]

VAC has nothing to do with piracy. And I doubt your "unity project" is VAC protected.

[Sonya]

Originally posted by XBL Laberbacke:

VAC has nothing to do with piracy. And I doubt your "unity project" is VAC protected.

But what about people playing unlicensed games "pretending" to play spacewar - are they actually not risking to be banned at all then?

What I was concerned about is that whatever I launch that shows me playing spacewar (whatever that is not actually spacewar) technically might as well be a pirated game and could get me banned if some system detects that hash codes are not matching or smth.

So I assume I got that wrong and there is nothing to worry about? It just seems strange, because again, too much room for potentional abuse.

[XBL Laberbacke]

Originally posted by XBL Laberbacke:

VAC has nothing to do with piracy.

[MalikQayum]

your game can integrate steamworks features if it has its own appid.
so basically you can do all the prework untill you actually have an appid.

[Snaggle]

Originally posted by a normal name:

But what about people playing unlicensed games "pretending" to play spacewar - are they actually not risking to be banned at all then?

If the account is banned, it will probably be an account wide lock or similar and not a VAC ban. VAC is an anti-cheat, so your question probably can't be answered here.

[Sonya]

Originally posted by MalikQayum:

your game can integrate steamworks features if it has its own appid.
so basically you can do all the prework untill you actually have an appid.

the problem is that I CAN integrate steamworks features without appid, and it means that I'm kind of using steam's traffic without any partnership or whatever (using steam servers for NAT-punchthrough barely have any impact, but still)

Originally posted by Snaggle:

Originally posted by a normal name:

But what about people playing unlicensed games "pretending" to play spacewar - are they actually not risking to be banned at all then?

If the account is banned, it will probably be an account wide lock or similar and not a VAC ban. VAC is an anti-cheat, so your question probably can't be answered here.

Yeah, that actually makes sense. Even if I somehow could get VAC banned for this, it would mean only a ban for spacewar anyway... I guess with google suggesting "VAC" for anything related to steam and bans I completely forgot about the account lock feature.

I never heard about an account being locked for any reason except suspicions of scamming or it being hijacked, but apparently "Piracy or Hacking" is one of the possiblities.

Gotta figure out, where exactly I should post this now, don't feel like cloning the discussion any more times than needed.

Thanks for the help anyway.

[Snaggle]

The easiest way is likely to ask Steam support, or whoever supports the Steamworks tools you're using. If you're not meant to be using those tools (you said you were not a steamworks dev and I don't know if you're still allowed to use the tools or not) then the official Steam website is probably the last place you should be asking for help.

[Kesac]

You probably need to officially get access to the SDK to be totally safe.

https://partner.steamgames.com/ -- sign in and accept the SDK access agreement.